Why free?
Why Is Osaurus Free?
“If something’s free, you’re the product.” It’s a fair rule of thumb.
When people find Osaurus — a polished, native Mac app for running AI agents on their own machine at no cost — the first question is usually some version of: what’s the catch?
A Reddit user asked our founder exactly that. His answer, in short: there isn’t one, and the reason is structural, not charitable.
Free Because It Costs Us Nothing to Give Away
Most AI products are expensive to operate because every question you ask runs on the company’s servers. They pay for that compute, so they need your subscription — or your data.
Osaurus is built the other way around. With a local model, the model, your files, your agents’ memory, and your tools all run on your Mac’s own chip. When you use local AI through Osaurus, our costs don’t go up. There is no server bill to recoup, so there is no subscription required for the local product and no reason to harvest your data.
“The whole point is that you own this stuff instead of renting it from someone.”
You Don’t Have to Take Our Word for It
- Open source, MIT licensed. The entire codebase is public on GitHub. Anyone can read exactly what the app does.
- No traditional account required. You don’t need an email address or password to use the app.
- Works with your Wi-Fi off. Use a local model and Osaurus keeps working without an internet connection.
- Analytics and crash reports you control. Shipped builds include anonymous usage analytics and crash diagnostics. They never include your chats, prompts, keys, or files, and you can turn both off independently in Settings. Every event is documented.
So How Will the Company Survive?
Also a fair question. Free products from companies with no income have a habit of disappearing or turning on their users. Here’s our actual model.
Everything that runs locally stays free. That’s the commitment, and the MIT license makes it enforceable: even if Osaurus, Inc. vanished tomorrow, the software is yours and the community can carry it forward.
Revenue comes from optional extras that genuinely cost us money to provide, including hosted inference and cloud conveniences you can use when a task needs more than your local Mac can offer. If you never want those, you never pay, and the local product remains complete.
The Pattern Is Proven
This isn’t a novel gamble. Strong local AI and open-source products follow the same shape: the local core is free, and optional hosted services fund development.
It aligns our incentives with yours. We only earn when we provide something genuinely worth paying for, not by locking up what you already have.
Common Questions
Is Osaurus really 100% free?
The app, local models, agents, plugins, and updates are free, MIT licensed, and have no trial period or local usage caps. Optional hosted inference is metered because it creates a real server cost.
Will local features become paid later?
No. Anything that runs locally stays free. The open-source MIT license means this promise doesn’t depend only on trusting us.
Do you sell my data?
No. With local models, your chats, files, and prompts stay on your Mac. If you choose a cloud model, the request content needed for a response is sent to that provider under the applicable privacy terms.
Why was my first response slow?
The first message after loading a large model can take longer because the model is being loaded into memory. After that, responses run at full speed. If it stays slow, try a smaller model for your Mac’s memory or ask in Discord for help choosing one.
What Macs does it run on?
Osaurus requires Apple Silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 15.5 or newer.
Try It Yourself
Download Osaurus free, or inspect the source code first if you’d rather verify every claim.